The use of x-ray imagery is almost ubiquitous in facilities that provide healthcare services. X-ray imagery allows doctors to view the internal structures of patients without conducting invasive surgery. There are a number of techniques that use x-ray radiation in order to obtain images of a patient, such as radiography, computed tomography, and fluoroscopy. While the exact use of x-rays in generating diagnostic quality imaging differs, all of these techniques on some level bombard the patient with x-ray radiation.
While x-ray radiation can be an incredibly useful diagnostic tool, overexposure to x-ray radiation can cause serious harm or death in patients. As such, the use of radiation shielding garments has become standard practice whenever a patient is subjected to x-ray radiation.
However, as x-ray imagery is being utilized in increasing amounts, the ability of healthcare facilities to maintain adequate supplies of these radiology garments becomes a large challenge. Further, there are regulatory requirements that place restrictions on the use and cleaning of radiology garments in healthcare facilities, set forth by organizations such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Health, and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. While beneficial, these regulations result in additional hurdles to providing x-ray imagery to patients. Accordingly, there is a need for a device that can provide an automated cleaning service, as well as track the usage of radiology garments used by healthcare facilities.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present disclosure as disclosed hereafter.
In the present disclosure, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which the present disclosure is concerned.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate the present disclosure, no technical aspects are disclaimed and it is contemplated that the claims may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.